affects of death

affects of death

The Effects of Death on Children Which Pertains to Crow Lake:
An Annotated Bibliography

Robert Kastenbaum, “Death Instinct: Effects on children”. 2007.
The following annotation describes the psychoanalytical ideas of Sigmund Freud in correlation to the effects of death on children. The article talks about how children can get very destructive, and aggressive. The article goes on to say that children may feel like they are being punished and also shameful. When children become adults they get more aggressive and more destructive where affection and sharing would be satisfied, whether that would be personally, emotionally, physically, or sexually.

Leisha M. Anderson. “Discussing Death with Children: Childhood Bereavement”. February 2, 2007. < http://www.drugs.com/enc/discussing-death-with-children.html>
This site addresses many emotions and symptoms of what a child who goes through the painful grieving stages of death. It begins by stating that death is a very difficult concept for a child to understand. Children become very inquisitive and ask many questions that pertain to death (example: “what happens when people die?”). The article states that it is critical for an adult to discuss death with a child honestly, and in a manner that children can understand at that stage of development.
It is noted that a child’s understanding of death varies with age. For example, between the ages of zero and two a child sees death as separation or abandonment. From ages two to six children often believe death is reversible, and temporary. From ages six to eleven a child will show gradual understanding of irreversibility of death, and lastly a child eleven years of age and older understand fully that death is irreversible, inevitable, and they also develop an abstract and philosophical way of thinking.